Swell front for furniture.



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SWELL FBUNT FURFUBNITURE.

(Application filed May 23, 1898.)

(IP10 Model.)

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FRANK O. ANDERSON, OF JAMESTOWN, NEXV YORK.

SWELL FRONT FOR FURNITURE.

SPEGIFKCATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 660,088, dated October 23, 1900.

Serial No. 681,405. (No model.)

To all whom. it petty concern.-

Be it known that I, FRANK O. ANDERSON, a citizen of the United States,residing at Jamestown, in the county of Chautauqua and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Swell Front for Furniture, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to swell or roundedout fronts or sides for dressers, sideboards, com1nodes,chiifonniers, desks, and other articles of furniture in which such afront or side is desirable. Such swell fronts are usually made up of drawers, but may be composed of doors or a solid part of the frame.

The objects of my improvements are, first, to make such swell or rounded-out fronts or sides with inch or seven-eighth-inch boards as to thickness; second, to shape said swell fronts or sides in pleasing patterns which relieve angularity and show ed the grain of the wood without the use of veneer, and, third, to so combine my first two objects in the making of said swell fronts and sides as to greatly reduce the cost of manufacture, all of which will be fully understood from this specification and the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l-shows the edge of a drawer-front with the pattern cut on one side and kerfs sawed on the other ready for bending. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a finished swell-front drawer. Fig. 3 is a sectional view of planer bit and bed with shaping-roller attached to said bed and of drawer front and pattern, showing two different drawer-front patterns divided by the line X. Fig. 4: shows the edge of a drawer-front bent in two places to form a double drawer-front.

Swell or rounded-out fronts give a desirable and pleasing appearance to many pieces of furniture. This effect has hitherto been obtained by either bending a central form or board and veneering one or both sides of the same or by building up the rounded front by successive layers of veneer glued together in the bent form. Either of these swell fronts is costly to manufacture and does not admit of the many pleasing effects obtainable by shaping the solid wood in different patterns to suit the taste and atalmost no extra cost to the manufacturer, as will be shown, and then intensifying the swells of the patterns by sawing a limited number of kerfs 22 22 across the back of the board and bending it sufficiently to bring out the swell or curve. I out only a limited number of kerfs, three to five being sufficient, at the point to be bent, and it will be recognized at once that without the shaping of the front such a bending at one or two points would only produce angles; but this angularity is entirely relieved by the pattern cut on the front.

I shape or cut the pattern on the front either before or after bending; but I usually prefer to out it before bending in the following main ner, since almost no extra cost is involved over the regular planing of the boards: I first fasten one or more small rollers like 15 onto the bed 16 of a sticker or surface planer directly under the bits 21 21, as shown in Fig. 5. I then takea pattern or holder 17 which is the right size to receive the drawer-front to be shaped and which has the opposite of the pattern cut on its under side, as at 18 18. Holder 17 holds board 19 on its upper side by cleats 20 20, and the holder and board can be fed through the planer as one piece, roller 15 following pattern 1S and the planer-bits 21 21 cutting the opposite or desired pattern on board 19. To intensify the swell or give the full swell-front form, kerfs 22 22 are cut across the back of the board 19 at the desired point, and the board is then bent to the required ang1e,which is about two inches swell in a drawer three feet long. Strip 23 is then glued over the kerfs in the bent position and the edges 24 24. are sanded off even with the surface of the board, or strip 23 with edges 24 24 may be set into the surface of the board sufficiently to make the inside of the drawer smooth.

To shape or cut the face of the front after bending and staying by glued strip 23, I place the bent board on a bent holder or clamp, which has the desired pattern on each side, and then run the combined holder and board over the knives of a common buzz planer or jointer, which has had two guides screwed to its bed to receive the two patterns on the sides of the holder. Different patterns are given in Figs. 1 and 2 to suggest the many pleasing efiects I can obtain. It will be understood that a door or side of the frame can be shaped and bent to form a swell front or side the same as a drawer-front.

ally-deepening curves each side of a given point, slots cut across the back of said board I 5 at said point, the board bent at said slots to a desired angle of swell, substantially as shown and described.

In Witness that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence 20 of two Witnesses.

FRANK O. ANDERSON.

In presence of ALFRED A. ANDERSON, HERBERT H. WARREN. 

